Chapter 1: SSDD
My name is Frost aka Aero,“Hachi”/“Hitoribocchi“/”Bochkun“/”Frost”/“Allein”/“Solo” and many others. For simplicity’s sake just call me Frost. I used to work alone hence my lonesome nicknames but not today! Before I joined the military I was a civilian airman* but I haven’t flown a single aircraft in my entire life. Got sick of my desk job, war broke and I immediately tried to join the Country Air Force but failed.
My family was against the idea of me joining the military but heck, aviation started with risk takers passionate on journeying the wild blue yonder. I joined the military but as a forward air controller. Before I got sent to combat, war is over or at least the enemy nation won’t be bothering us anymore but a new front opened but this time, into the unknown.
A friend took me in to his unit and I got the opportunity to go on an adventure I’ve been yearning for all these years.
Morning comes, the sun greeted us good morning, the skies are now blue and the morning rituals were done. We said our prayers, got our focus, let go of yesterday’s problems and established our personal resolves for today we feast for breakfast; Silog hell yeah!
Before we eat, our squad leader Gook called us out. It was time for the daily morning workout.Gook is the 7th Platoon’s commanding officer with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. The 7th Platoon is where we belong and it has 3 known squads of 8 members each. I belong to 1st Squad the spearhead of 7th platoon.
We scout and make a path for the other squads and gather intel. My role is to coordinate with air unis but we have yet to call in airstrikes for now. Each squad has their respective roles but for now we work and bond as one platoon in this meager outpost far from base.You know what’s the best part of our platoon? Almost everyone here is a friend from elementary, high school, college from town from the city; shit almost everyone I know.
“Alright men drop and give me 50!” Gook shouted with his command voice.
We all dropped and started counting together. I used to hate push ups and can’t even do one proper push up back then but now I can manage. I look at Ej and Afro doing it with a blank expression as if bored. No joke I know these guys and they could do even a hundred without breaking a sweat. The others were also doing well.
Gook noticed that some guys are beginning to slow down and are about to give up.
“We ain’t doing only push ups maggots!Keep pushing! First one to give up will replace Doi and Lee from latrine duty not for 1 week but for the whole fucking month!”
“Gook can’t be serious right?” - Ej
Unbeknownst to him, everyone in the platoon picked up the pace. Especially Lee and Doi from the support squad.
“He’s serious man if we don’t do shit we’ll be literally do shit for a month!” I said as I gasped for air ignoring the pain. Pain is temporary but the smell of shit for a month is a hell no!
“Oh shit!”
Ej began doing his push ups faster. I noticed that from the coordinated and synchronize push ups, everyone began to do their grind in their own pacing. Gook was not pleased. Even when some of us finished 50 pushups specifically Ej, Gook called out to him.
“Did I said stop!”
Hence, Ej continued. No one stopped until the last one of us shouted “50!“. Everyone was tired but we all know work out ain’t over. The last one to do push ups was FC - short for Fried Chicken. Damn, he was the on latrine duty this week now he has to do it for a month. Poor bastard.Gook was also displeased.
“Where was the fucking unity!!! How can you work together as a team when you can’t even do push ups in sync right! Now for the last work out for today and this will determine who will eat shit for a whole fucking month!We’re all going for a run on the Green trail in full combat gear!”
This guy’s nuts! The Green trail is a 10 km natural obstacle course known for its uneven terrain, sharp curves, huge tree roots and logs scattered around, ditched hidden by plantation and we all get to cross a river with fast rapids. This is not accounting for the unknown fauna around the area but scouts said it’s all clear.
20 minutes later…
Too tired and hungry to even tell what exactly happened. All I see is we look shit and smell shit. Our uniform is all dirty, boots muddy and we are sweaty and almost dead.
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“Get yourselves some breakfast before it gets cold and damn… take a bath, the white coats gave us the go signal to bathe in this world’s waters. Now get your smelly asses washed and clean before you touch breakfast is that clear!? ”
“SIR YES SIR!”
We quickly jumped in a swimming hole near the outpost for a bath. The water’s so clear and refreshing unlike the polluted waters back home. Everyone forgot about breakfast and relaxed in the river. I saw Law and Pau- the ones on water duty also responsible for today’s breakfast on the bank cleaning some cooking utensils. Out of all my friends, they know Gook best.
“Yo Law, what’s with Gook? Seems to be too fired up today.” I asked.
“Well my friend, the thing is… he was just stalling you guys from breakfast because… we just finished cooking right now hahahahaha!”
“Thing is Gook forgot to call in logistics and hence, the food supplies came late. He worked you guys to the bone while he worked us to cook for the whole platoon in an hour.” - Pau explained.
“Talk about covering up mistakes”
The Silog breakfast was serve hot and looks delicious. It was serve on a boodle fight set up with huge banana leaves from the Country as plates with sinangag (fried rice)served in the middle with one sunny side up and one scrambled eggs for each and everyone of us. The dishes were tapa,tocino,hotdogs, tuyo, fried chicken nuggets, salmon belly, pork chop, ham along with tomatoes, onions, lettuce…it was a feast. I lead the prayer then everyone dug in. We ate using our hands. Everyone was happy and satisfied. Everyone ate like a king.
“This is so good!”- Ej
“Agree, and it’s free!” - Jaime
Everyone tried to expressed their satisfaction through words but words were not enough. Doi for an example kept silent and continues to eat like there’s no tomorrow. I look around and it was a sight to remember. I smiled and felt fulfilled having memories with friends like this and to my anger and depression, regretted why I didn't do this things at an earlier period in my life where the springtime of youth was at it’s peak.
I used to think that all I had to do was be a good boy, be good at school, get a job, get a girlfriend and trust the process and I did what I was told except get a girlfriend. I lament that I missed so much in my life and vow never to repeat such mistake. The mistake of doing nothing hits harder than a mistake of doing something.
I noticed that Gook was nowhere to be found and wondered where he could have gone. Honesly we weren’t that close back then and it’s only now that I try to get to know him better as a friend and as our commanding officer. I got up and picked up a paper plate then took Gook’s untouched share of the boodle fight.
I think I know where he was and so I went there. Near the highest point of our oupost was a look out besides a cliff barricaded with sandbags and reinforced with fallen trees at the front so to prevent some idiots taking selfies from falling down - happened to someone from the States Sector last week and good thing he just broke a few bones.
I see Gook looking out with his binoculars checking the terrain. Must be formulating plans on how to navigate when the time comes. I called him out and called back without removing his eyes on the binoculars.
“Hey Sir! You forgot you breakfast!”
“Oh, thank you Frost. Enough with the ‘Sir’ call me Gook like always man.”
“So, what’s keeping you busy these days Gook?” I asked.
Gook handed his binoculars to me. I took them and he pointed to where he was looking at.
“You see that big ass mountain range in front of us?”
“Yeah the ones covered by clouds and no one knows how high exactly they go but they are hypothesized to be higher than Everest.”
The first thing that got the multinational task forces’ attention when we first came here were the mountain ranges far from our location but their heights were abnormaly high as if they belong to the skies. No one can see the ranges’ mountain feet as they are always covered by trees and clouds. No satellite imagery is available yet and our drones have yet to scan beyond there but one things’s for sure, the drones range can’t reach them so manned aircraft are to be deployed soon as the runways are finished and capable of accomodating at least light fighters such as Vipers, Gripens, Tigersharks and FA-50’s.
“Exactly!”
“So, what are we gonna do about them?” I asked.
“Well since you asked, I’ll tell you something. For today and the rest of the week we’ll stay SSDD - Same Shit Different Day but the following week… we’ll start getting SNAFU. We’ll be going on our first recon mission down this mountain base. The engineers finished constructing the road down and the airfield finished as courtesy by the States.” - Gook
My heartbeat raised when he said first mission. This is it, life of adventure begins!
“I see you’re quite excited there. Well me too. In fact, I’m happy I get to be with my friends in this exciting chapter in my life. I never thought that my friends would join the military and be my brothers in arms… Especially you Frost, you got me surprised when you joined in.”
“Well, I figured it’s time for me to leave my comfort zone and find some distortion in life. After all, distortion is motion.”
Gook smiled. However, that expression turned serious.
“I’m happy for your resolve but as much as I’m excited to go to an adventure with you guys, I also have this burden on keeping you all alive althroughout I will be hard if needed. A single one of you guys dying on my command hurts more than failing a mission or getting court martial. ” - Gook.
The 2nd Lieutenant just exposed his vulnerable side to me which was unexpected yet feels like an honor to know that he trusts me to confide his burdens to me. As we talk with each other, two Country Air force F-20E’s multi role fighter aircraft with States F-15EX buzzed above us.
“Well Frost looks like things are about to get lively around here.”
“Yeah I guess. So,Same Shit Different Day huh?”
“Yep you know what that means,we gonna play video games AFTER doing our designated tasks.” - Gook
“Copy that, SSDD it is.”
I concluded.
to be continued…